Ever since India's independence in 1947, it's powers-that-be have been taking traitorously wrong decisions. The wrongness was too glaring to have been caused due to incompetence of the administration. Either the decision-makers were gullible enough to be misled by the Firangi advisers or they wittingly accepted some form of bribes from Firangs and acted against the interest of the Indian public.

When the Firangs were overtly ruling over us, they interfered with our affairs in a way that had direct and significant impact on the lives of the masses. In 1947, when the Firangs stopped ruling over us overtly and started doing that covertly, the effect had greatly reduced but it was there nonetheless.

Freight equalisation policy was adopted by the government of India to facilitate the equal growth of industry all over the country. This meant a factory could be set up anywhere in India and the transportation of minerals would be subsidised by the central government. The policy was introduced in 1952, and remained in force until 1993.

The policy hurt the economic prospects of the mineral-rich states like Bihar (including present-day Jharkhand), West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh (including present-day Chhattisgarh) and Orissa, since it weakened the incentives for private capital to establish production facilities in these areas.[2] As a result of the policy, businesses preferred setting up industrial locations closer to the coastal trade hubs and markets in other parts of the country.

NEW DELHI: An Intelligence Bureau report has accused "foreign-funded" NGOs such as Greenpeace, Cordaid, Amnesty and ActionAid of "serving as tools for foreign policy interests of western governments" by sponsoring agitations against nuclear and coal-fired power plants across the country.

The NGOs, said to be working through a network of local organizations such as PUCL and Narmada Bachao Andolan, have negatively impacted GDP growth by 2-3%, claims the IB report sent to the PMO and other government agencies.

The IB report — addressed to PMO, heads of joint intelligence committee and R&AW, national security council secretariat (NSCS), coal and power secretaries, home minister, finance minister and Cabinet secretary, and signed by IB joint director Safi A Rizvi — alleges that the "areas of action" of the foreign-funded NGOs include anti-nuclear, anti-coal and anti-Genetically Modified Organisms protests. Apart from stalling mega industrial projects including those floated by POSCO and Vedanta, these NGOs have also been working to the detriment of mining, dam and oil drilling projects in north-eastern India, it adds.

According to the report dated June 3, these foreign-funded NGOs are allegedly the influence behind "Praful Bidwais and Medha Patkars". The document, the details of which were accessed by TOI, accuses Greenpeace of having expanded its activities to oppose coal-fired power plants and coal mining and receiving Rs 45 crore from abroad in the last seven years.

Since 2013, Greenpeace has undertaken protests in five project-affected villages of Mahaan (in Madhya Pradesh) coal block allocated to Essar and Hindalco under the banner of Mahaan Sangarsh Samiti. Its activists have been targeting coal mining companies specifically Coal India Limited, Hindalco, Aditya Birla group and Essar as they "stand in their way", the report alleged.

"To encourage Indianness of its anti-coal approach, Greenpeace has financed a private research institute to study health, pollution and other aspects at Mahaan and plans to use the Mahaan case as a precursor for a ban on all coal blocks," it said.

The report has also raised questions over nearly $40,000 deposited in two bank accounts of S P Udayakumar, convenor of People's Movement against Nuclear Energy that has been at the forefront of the agitation against the Kudankulam nuclear project. The money was supposedly transferred by Ohio University for sending in resources and articles in the field of Kudankulam.

The report further alleges that six NGOs are at the forefront of anti-GM Food activism in India, with Germany being the main source of funds.

According to the report, future plans of the foreign-funded NGOs to take down fresh economic development projects include protests against palm oil imports, migration of workers to cities for construction work, campaign against disposal of e-waste generated by IT and Par Tapi-Narmada river interlinking in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The future plans also include debunking the Gujarat model of development, special investment region in Gujarat and Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor, says the IB report.

Reacting to such allegations, senior campaigner of Greenpeace India Abhishek Pratap said, "Greenpeace India is an independent organization, which campaigns for development which is sustainable and growth that is inclusive - that is our understanding of 'sab ka saath sab ka vikas". How can this be a threat to national economic security"?

Pratap said, "We are clearly a threat to powerful corporate interests that seek to bulldoze clearances at the cost of millions of people and the environment".

He said, "We have a legitimate right to express our views in what is after all the world's largest democracy. We believe that this report is designed to muzzle and silence civil society who raise their voices against injustices to people and the environment by asking uncomfortable questions about the current model of growth."

Greenpeace also rubbished the allegation that it had funded Aam Admi Party (AAP) candidate Pankaj Singh, who contested from the Sidhi Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh. Said Greenpeace's Divya Raghunandan, "Pankaj was working with us before he joined AAP. He was a good activist working on the ground and in touch with the community. We lost a good hand to AAP. Greenpeace never supported his political activities."

Pankaj Singh told TOI: "It was my own decision to join AAP but that was only after I quit Greenpeace. I was working for Greenpeace as a consultant. I am a Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) graduate on community organization and development practices. So obviously my work has been focused on community forest rights."

The Indian government has made it mandatory to sell iodized salt and put a ban on the sale of non-iodized salt. But the government has failed to show the harmful effects caused by excessive intake of iodine. Let's look at some of these effects.

RECENTLY, THE government of India had made it compulsory to sell iodized salt, which means that you won’t get the normal non-iodized (iodine free) or natural salt in the market.

The hidden agenda (birth control or population control):-

It is clearly established that the Indian government is performing an undercover population control operation mainly due to external compulsions.

The worst hit are the consumers who fail to comply with the family planning birth control protocol. It reminds me of the birth control operation of Sanjay Gandhi in the late 70s. The only difference is the latter is silently executed in stealth mode.

The process: The natural sea salt is poisoned ( I used the term poisoned, which will be explained later) with a chemical called potassium iodide to make the so called 'iodized salt'.

The theory: (As projected by the government) iodine is essential for the normal physical and mental development of the body, it regulates the thyroid gland (situated in the neck ).

Deficiency of iodine could lead to hypothyroidism and goiter (diseases characterised by swelling in the neck) and the best way to deliver iodine to the masses is to add it in some essential food additive such as common table salt.

The facts: The government fails (or hides) to show the devastating harmful effects caused by excessive intake of iodine.

1) Iodine deficiency in India is confined or restricted to remote hilly regions of India such as Nagaland and Assam.

2) 99.9 per cent of India is iodine sufficient ie we are not iodine deficient.

3) The food, vegetables, milk, etc, which we take are enough to maintain the normal dietary intake of iodine, which means that we don’t need to take extra iodine.

4) If we consume iodized salt then we are pumping extra iodine into our bodies, far exceeding the recommended daily allowance (RDA).

Harmful effects of extra iodine consumption:

The extra iodine present in our body triggers high release of thyroxine hormone from thyroid gland leading to a condition known as hyperthyroidism.

The greatest effect is the premature development of the secondary sexual characters (SSCs) such as development of breasts and pubic hairs in females and beards in males at an early age.

Rapid and premature aging and presumably premature deaths.

2) Thyrotoxicosis

3) Thyroid cancer etc.

70-80 per cent of female infertility is caused due to hyperthyroidism, a disease caused by high iodine intake.

Then why on earth the Indian government is forcefully making the sale of iodized salt mandatory?

Suggestions:

The government should immediately lift the ban on the sale of natural salt (non iodized).

The policy makers should think twice and carefully analyse the consequences before implementing such Tuglaqi farmaans.

The scientific research communities should come forward and carry independent research on the long term effects of human iodine intake.

Extra facts, deep R&A about iodine:

I would like to give some experimental evidence on the effect of iodine on living creatures.

Tadpoles, which are small fish like creatures while on its first stage in the life cycle of frog were used, the tadpoles were divided into three batches of equal population.

Batch 1: Was given normal feed and was kept as a control measure.

Batch 2: Was given iodine deficient feed

Batch 3: Was given iodine excess feed

The results after two weeks were quite alarming.

The first batch, which was given normal feed behaved normally and changed (metamorphosed) from tadpole to frog (adult) and reproduced in a normal manner.

The second batch, which was given iodine deficient feed was unable to change from tadpole to frog and remained the same.

The third batch, which was given extra iodine changed from tadpole to frog stage very fast almost half the time required by the normal ones, and most of the adult frogs were relatively small when compared to normal ones and the rate of reproduction dropped by almost 60 per cent to the normal.

The same effect is seen in mammals including humans and the effects, which can be concluded in humans due to excess iodine are:

1) Rapid aging and transformation to adult stage.

2) Drop in fertility rate and old age symptoms at an early stage.

Conclusion:

The word poison is apt for iodine as it slowly poisons our population out of existence. The scientific research communities should come forward and carry independent research on the long term effects of human iodine intake.

NEW DELHI: In what has the makings of a new controversy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has blamed American NGOs for fuelling protests at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu.

Speaking to NDTV's Science Editor Pallava Bagla during an interview for Science magazine, the Prime Minister said, "What's happening in Kudankulam...the atomic energy programme has got into difficulties because these NGOs, mostly I think based in the United States, don't appreciate the need for our country to increase the energy supply."

Reacting to the statement, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy said that private NGOs working in US and Scandinavian countries have been giving money to NGOs in India.

"Licenses of three NGOs have been cancelled by the home ministry. They are also thinking of taking further action. In fact the people who are agitating near the plant have been continuing their agitation for the past three months. People are being brought there in trucks from various villages," said Mr Narayanasamy.

The Prime Minister's statement has sparked off a row with the Opposition asking him to clarify and make public all facts regarding this issue.

"I think it's a very important statement that the PM has made, and since he has made such a statement - I have seen reports in sections of the media - I think the government must make facts regard to this public, so that the veracity of all this is known to the people of India who are then in the correct position to decide what is the correct position," BJP leader Arun Jaitley said.

Reacting to the Prime Minister's statement, the CPI's D Raja said that the PM needs to address the concerns of the people.

"If American based NGOs are playing a role in Kudankulam, then they should be isolated and action should be taken against them. But the other factor is that people are suffering there, the Prime Minister and others need to address the concerns of the people," he said.

"I don't think the Prime Minister is targeting the American government. If the Prime Minister has any evidence against the NGOs, he should go and tell the people of Kudankulam instead of giving interviews to magazines," Mr Raja added.

Speaking to NDTV, Anil Kakodkar, former head of the Atomic Energy Commission, said that it is strange that India's development would become hostage to foreign forces.

"I think it is strange that a large project ready for implementation, which has met all safety requirements, in an environment where there is tremendous shortage of electricity, our development would become hostage to such foreign forces. This has been visible for some time, according to me, because Kudankulam has been a friendly neighbourhood for a long time. I, myself, have gone there during my tenure as Chairman several times.... Just kind of exploiting the Fukushima sentiment, this entire thing has been picked up. The important thing is that a nuclear power plant cannot be put under a siege the way it has happened now and it is rather strange that we allow such things to happen," said Anil Kakodkar, Former Head, Atomic Energy Commission.

The Prime Minister has also blamed these NGOs for opposing genetically modified foods and the use of biotechnology to increase food production in the country. "Biotechnology has enormous potential and in due course of time we must make use of genetic engineering technologies to increase the productivity of our agriculture. But there are controversies. There are NGOs, often funded from the United States and the Scandinavian countries, which are not fully appreciative of the development challenges that our country faces," Dr Singh said.

The Rs. 13,000-crore Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) is located in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. Being built with Russian collaboration, the plant is expected to provide respite from the power shortage problem in the state. But the Indo-Russian joint venture has run into trouble with activists and locals staging massive protests citing safety concerns in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan early last year. As a result of these frequent protests, the commissioning of two 1000 megawatt nuclear reactors at the plant has been stalled.

Several rounds of talks between the Central government-appointed expert panel and representatives of villagers opposing the plant have failed to end the stand-off. The villagers say they fear for their lives and safety in case of a nuclear accident and the long-term impact it would have on the population in the area.

Worried over the scale of protests against the plant, the PM had urged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to support the project and had assured her that no safety features would be compromised at the plant.

While international experts have signed off on the facilities of the plant, deeming them strong enough to withstand an earthquake or a tsunami, the country's nuclear watchdog - the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board - has suggested that more security checks were needed at the plant.

This interview appears today, February 24, 2012, in the print edition of the Science magazine as part of a special package titled 'India Rising'.

Freight equalisation policy was adopted by the government of India to facilitate the equal growth of industry all over the country. This meant a factory could be set up anywhere in India and the transportation of minerals would be subsidised by the central government. The policy was introduced in 1952, and remained in force until 1993.

The policy hurt the economic prospects of the mineral-rich states like Bihar (including present-day Jharkhand), West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh (including present-day Chhattisgarh) and Orissa, since it weakened the incentives for private capital to establish production facilities in these areas.[2] As a result of the policy, businesses preferred setting up industrial locations closer to the coastal trade hubs and markets in other parts of the country.